New Prices and New Publications

For all the readers of this, please go check out my website to see the new prices on several of my books and publications. I have recently been able to lower the prices on several of the publications and have done so to the extent that I can without losing money on them. PLUS, there are now some FREEBIES with a couple of the books.

Also, I now have a Facebook page…thanks to Pamela Price who guided me through the process. It’s titled (guess what) The Hill Country Gardener. I’ll be posting little blogs on it from time to time. If you have a Facebook page, check out mine and click on “Like.” See what others are saying.

Finally, It’s Time to Fertilize the Grass

OK, now it’s time to put the fertilizer on the lawn to get it ready for its winter rest period (actually it doesn’t rest at all, just the tops turn brown; the roots are still quite active). Anytime in the next 2-3 weeks will be fine. Be sure to buy a lawn fertilizer that says “winterizer” on the bag. The three numbers on the bag should have either a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ratio; for example, 15-5-10 or 19-5-9. If you use organic fertilizer, stay with it and add it now, too.

If you’re planning to put in a new bed or two next spring, now is the time to spray the grass with Roundup or another glyphosate herbicide. The reason you spray it now is because it has to be applied to grass that is ACTIVELY growing. The grass will be going dormant any time now and the Roundup will be useless when it does. If we luck out and the grass doesn’t go dormant early, you can begin to work the bed as soon as you’re sure the roots of the grass are dead–usually 10-15 days later. Don’t worry about working the soil; the Roundup only kills the plant life…and it will kill any plant it gets on, so be careful. Roundup disintegrates almost immediately upon contact with soil so you don’t have to worry about how long it stays in the soil. It’s gone almost immediately.

Fire Ant Treatment

Fire ant mounds have been showing up with all the recent rains. You should go ahead and treat individual mounds now. It’s also time to treat the whole yard. Use the area-wide baits (like Amdro) when you treat the whole yard. Treating the entire area ensures about a 90-95 percent reduction in fire ants over the winter. Be sure to follow the directions on the bag. It takes very little of the bait (about 1 lb. per acre) to do the job as the ants will travel as far as 50 feet to forage. They feed the queens in the nest first and, of course, when the queens go, the mound goes.

Annual Herb Market

The annual Herb Market will be held at the Pearl Brewery tomorrow, the 16th. If you want to learn about herbs or buy almost any herb you ever heard of, come on by. The event is sponsored by the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas and proceeds are used to finance their gardening-education programs.

I’ll be there giving drip irrigation demonstrations and selling (and signing) my publications. Come by and see the new publications and say, “Hey.”

Firewood

As we approach the fall, some of you may be thinking about burning wood in the fireplace (we have a fire if it’s below 40 degrees–period). If you buy your wood and you burn oak, be sure that you get wood that has been dried at least 6 months (a year would be better.) You don’t want to stand the chance of bringing oak wilt into the neighborhood. Just ask the person you buy it from…they’ll know. After oak has dried for this period of time, the oak wilt fungus is pretty well dead and won’t be a problem.

In the Veggie Bed

October is the month to plant garlic. Personally I like the elephant garlic (not a true garlic, but a very large leek) because of its milder flavor. It’s also time to plant beets, carrots, collards, lettuce, mustard, peas, spinach, turnips, onion seeds, and radishes. It’s a little late to plant broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and lettuce in. They may be OK, but it’s a little “iffy”.

Webworms

A concerned reader wrote and asked about webs on the trees in the Boerne area. The webs are caused by a worm trying to become a butterfly or moth (not sure which). They’re almost finished now, but if you still see worms, the best thing you can do is to open the web with a stick or long pole so that birds and wasps can get in and get to the worms. The worms will defoliate the trees but seldom kill them.

Blog

To the blog readers, thanks to you we’re in the top 25 blogs.

Send your comments and/or questions to gardener@gvtc.com or see the website at www.thehillcountrygardener.com.